Two Mormons on Super Bowl Sunday
By
A pair of Mormons visited me during the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl on Sunday.
I’m not kidding. Right after the Saints challenged the call on their two-point conversion, I hear a loud knock on our front door. Startled, I hustled to the door and peeked through the blinds.
And there they stood. Two young and extremely white guys with clear labels on their lapel and eager to chat.
Now hear me out on this. I’m not ranting about religion. That’s not the point of this post. I personally don’t agree with most tenets of the Mormon faith, but I’m always nice, always conversational.
Except in the middle of the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl.
I yelled through the door, “Not tonight, guys.” They kept pushing. I repeated my response, and then made it clear that I was watching the game. They kept at it, until I finally had to be rude and just turn around and get back to the game.
Whose Time Are You Wasting?
You’ve got to appreciate their zeal and consistency. But I think you have to question their timing and approach. There was no way I was going to open myself up to a lengthy discussion on the Book of Mormon while the Saints (no pun intended) were making history.
The lesson is clear: why would you ask for something at the absolute most inopportune time? Seriously, why bother? Surely these guys knew they weren’t going to get anywhere on Super Bowl Sunday.
And yet, many of us do the equivalent every day. We knock on our customers’ doors, shouting out our “call-to-action,” knowing full well they are comfortable and content in their proverbial recliners, in absolutely no mood to hear anything we’re saying.
But we do it anyway.
Forget wasting your own time; how about wasting your customer’s time? How long do you think they’ll tolerate that?
—————————————
FYI, I hope you noticed I made it a point to keep this focused on business and not religious preferences. Keep it that way in the comments, if you don’t mind.
7 Comments
February 9th, 2010 at 11:58 am
Magnificent! “don’t agree with most tenets of the Mormon faith” I have trouble thinking of ANY mormon tenets that I agree with. Except that holy underwear thing, that’s kinda cool. I definitely couldn’t handle more wives.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:06 pm
Looking at this both ways, you can see a positive to this. On the business aspect, their are times when you are looking at failure from the beginning. Instead of giving in to the failure and standing idly by, you can go out and put forth effort. Somewhere, there is that one person or client that is ready to receive your “message”. How many people did you date before you found someone that would marry you? We are faced with opposition all our lives and we can either face it head on and make the best of it or we can succumb to it and be medial. These wonderful young men that stopped by your house have given 2 years of their life to go out and share what they belive is the best “product” that is on the market. They do so and are shut off from the outside world. They do not get to watch tv, go on dates, call their parents, and many other things that we do on a daily basis. Could we not be committed like these young men and be willing to sacrifice for the greater good and to share our message? That is just my thought. And by the way, YES, I AM A MORMON !
February 9th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by texasaggie1, Mark Brinkerhoff, bdunc1, bdunc1, bdunc1 and others. bdunc1 said: Two Mormons on Super Bowl Sunday: a lesson in timing (New at MiP): http://ow.ly/15jNw [...]
February 10th, 2010 at 12:06 am
Christian –
Very nice point, and certainly worthy of a hearty “Amen!” I guess it comes down to which perspective you care to take. If you take the missionaries’ perspective, then yes, knocking on my door may be their mighty yelp and battle cry, and that might’ve been just the thing they need. From my perspective (in this case, the customer’s), it was probably the worst time to approach me with the message, and it actually gave me a bad experience.
Don’t get me wrong here; while often tempting, I think you certainly have to draw a line between marketing and religion fairly early on in any comparisons. While it’s easy to treat the message of eternity and salvation as “a product,” let’s face it: it’s a lot more than that.
But since I write a blog about marketing, that’s the angle I took. And thanks for taking it as such, given you’ve obviously got a different vantage point than mine.
And as for the dating analogy, I would take it a step further: how far would I get with any woman if I asked for a date while she was watching the volleyball scene from Top Gun. It really wouldn’t matter what I did. My “prey” would not want to take her eye off of Maverick’s and Iceman’s bare chests in the blazing sun. I’d be better off waiting for a different time.
Harris – you’re pushing it. But way to squeeze in “underwear” into your comment.
February 10th, 2010 at 3:22 am
I’d be inclined to disagree with Christian.
Let’s rewrite the story: If a vacuum salesman showed up on Brett’s door during the third quarter, his response would’ve been the same: go away. It’s still the 3rd quarter of the SuperBowl, and Brett probably has a vacuum. Brett doesn’t care if they signed a 2-year contract with Hoover.
Three issues:
The first is that dedication (i.e. faith/passion) alone doesn’t produce results. No vacuum cleaner salesman makes money for loving how much Hoovers suck (insert laugh track).
The second issue is how success is defined. You shouldn’t define success by your labor or passion, but by the sales and profit(there’s a pun in there). You count vacuums sold, not doors knocked. If your definition of success isn’t customer-driven, you’re not getting any more of them.
That leads to the third issue: ROI = Sell to your buyer first. Yield the most profit with the least cost; use your resources wisely. So you sell a solution to the person that has a problem and wants a solution. A vacuum salesman is going to make money from those with broken vacuums and dirty floors. Door-to-door sales was effective in the days prior to Kinkos making flyers, Google, and Facebook Ads. Why focus the majority of your energy on anything else? Especially during The Big Game.
I applaud these guys’ dedication to their faith and their commitment to sharing it with others. They’re dedication is admirable, just not effective. I would exhort them to be both dedicated AND effective in sharing their faith. I know many teachers, musicians, graphic designers and video producers who see their faith as a product to be sold. They believe they’re selling the most valuable product in the world and they won’t risk losing a single sale. Because of that view, they develop detailed and effective strategies for making believers.
Be dedicated to being effective. James 2:14-26
February 10th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
What Frank had to say was very interesting. What I see is you have a company that has the market cornered. They have television, radio, internet, phone sales, and even door to door sales. What we are talking about is one facet of this group. While Bret’s answer may have still been no, if given the oppurtunity he would have heard a sales approach that is worthy of a listen. Since we were using vacuum cleaners an example we will stick with that one. It would have been like this. Good evening, we are from Acme Vacuum Co. and we are here sharing information about our vacuum cleaner. New information has been revealed that shows that there is more that we must do when we vacuum than what has previously has been done before. What we are selling is not anything that you can go and buy at your neighborhood stores on every corner, but only available in a select market. Is this something that you know about or that you have any interest in? (This is where they would wait for your answer). Would you have the time for us to talk to you about this? ( if yes they would expect to be invited in to share or if No, this is what you would hear). If it is a bad time, when would be a good time for us to come and speak with you? Do you know anyone personally or your neighbors that may be interested or may benefit from what we have to offer? Thank you for your time.
Although he may have never bought a vacuum cleaner, several things were done. A seed was planted and you have the potential of finding out more people to sell to. While some people look at success as what you sell, which is highly important, you sometimes need to go on fact finding missions to be able to get your product name out there and see where it is needed. If you diligently do the work, you will see the progress. Keep good records of who you have spoken with and what they said so that you may refer to it later. Just because they don’t need a vacuum right now, doesn’t mean next week theirs won’t break and they may be in the market. Sometimes the work won’t come at the most oppurtune time, but when you have the oppurtunity, you should do the work.
February 10th, 2010 at 11:20 pm
Frank – I love switching the “product” to a vacuum cleaner. It completely sheds the light on my real point.
Christian, I still think you’re looking at this from the “salesman’s” vantage point rather than the customer’s. Yes, as a salesman, if you work the numbers, play the odds, and stay consistent, a fraction of those seeds you plant will sprout. I understand that you’re just trying to get one “no” closer to a “yes.”
But the soil is the absolute least fertile during the 4th quarter on Super Bowl Sunday. A good salesman knows that the best time to sell is when you’re customer is looking for what you’ve got.
Like I mentioned in the original post, the analogy wears down. I actually think we too often link religion to sales, and that often scares too many people away. We’ve grown up thinking that “sharing our faith” resembles cold-calling a neighborhood and hanging door knockers. If I recall, Jesus spoke to and taught those who were attracted (shall I daresay called?) to Him. He really didn’t cold call. The crowds came to Him, and he made it well worth their search.